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Jammer's Review

Star Trek: The Next Generation

"The Pegasus"

Air date: 1/10/1994
Written by Ronald D. Moore
Directed by LeVar Burton

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

Admiral Eric Pressman (Terry O'Quinn) is posted to the Enterprise on a provisional basis to oversee the search for the wreckage of the missing USS Pegasus, the ship he commanded 12 years ago before it was lost (and, until recently, presumably destroyed, along with most of its crew) in a calamitous accident. Also aboard the Pegasus at that time was a young Ensign Riker, fresh out of the academy on his first starship assignment.

Pressman intends to find the Pegasus and its valuable and highly classified experimental technology, the details of which he has no intentions of revealing to Picard. The mission is chock-full of secrets, but time is of the essence — because the Romulans also have gotten wind of the whereabouts of this mysterious ship and are looking for it in an asteroid field. They can't be allowed to find it first. Riker, forced to confront ghosts from his past, is ordered by Pressman not to talk to Picard about the classified details of the Pegasus' disastrous fate.

Where "Parallels" was so clearly pure Brannon Braga, "The Pegasus" is just as clearly vintage Ron Moore, delving deep into the complicated and messy military aspects of Starfleet and the themes of duty, loyalty, and integrity. This episode is one of the most perfectly balanced episodes of TNG ever made, featuring a myriad of great elements in one cohesive package.

We've got ominous intrigue and conflict in the hidden agendas of Pressman and the Pegasus past: Just what were they building on that ship that went so awry, and why is everything so secretive? We've got great tension and backstory in the characterization of Riker and his questionable role in that event: Picard cashes in favors to get a classified report on the Pegasus and learns of an unthinkable mutiny. We've got an entertaining cat-and-mouse game with the Enterprise and the Romulan warbird racing to find the prize first: There are brilliant moments between Picard and Romulan Commander Sirol (Michael Mack), who hilariously threaten each other through the false facade of idle pleasantries. And we've got some terrific, atmospheric sci-fi FX sequences when the Enterprise ventures into the tunnels of an asteroid and finds the Pegasus, which lies embedded in a rock face because of the experimental technology that put it there. Oh, and in this otherwise serious episode, there's even a perfect comic note in the opening teaser's hilarious idea of "Captain Picard Day" (and Picard's grumbling about it).

And all through "The Pegasus" is Riker struggling with his conscience. He knows the story's secrets but has been forbidden to divulge them under orders from Pressman. Picard's ensuing conflict with Riker is serious and rare stuff as TNG goes, with Picard promising that if Riker's refusal to come clean in any way puts the Enterprise at risk, then he will have to "re-evaluate the command structure of this ship." For that matter, as the episode progresses, Pressman seems more and more like a villain waiting to be uncovered. (This many secrets can't be hiding anything good.) Terry O'Quinn is especially effective here; the villains in these sorts of stories believe themselves to be doing the right thing at the cost of acceptable collateral damage — in this case, the deaths of much of the Pegasus crew 12 years ago when the secret technology (ultimately revealed to be an illegal cloaking device with phase-shifting abilities that permit the ship to move through objects) blew up in their faces just after the mutiny that divided the crew. Riker, then a rookie, took Pressman's side in that mutiny because Pressman was the captain. But in the years since, Riker has grown to regret that decision as the morally wrong one.

And that's ultimately what "The Pegasus" is about — making the moral choice rather than "following orders." The themes of duty and truth are similar to the themes Moore used to great effect in "The First Duty," but they're employed to even greater effect here — because sometimes the truth of a messy situation only becomes clear with the passage of time and the gaining of maturity and perspective. Now, 12 years later, Riker is able to do what he couldn't do as a rookie by standing up to Pressman and revealing the truth that has been buried for so many years. It's one of the great showcases for Will Riker in TNG's run.

39 comments on this review

Wow. Four stars? I'll guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I've always
considered "The Pegasus" a sort of "First Duty"-lite. Where "The Pegasus"
had some good drama with solid conflict, there really wasn't that much
intensity to it. "The First Duty" on the other hand, had my stomach in
knots 20 years ago.

Wesley was in a major bind, and he didn't get a "get out of the brig free"
card like Riker because he was following orders, as a matter of fact it was
the reverse. Robert Duncan McNeil's Locarno was a far more three
dimensional character than Terry O'Quinn's rogue admiral #715. Locarno
ultimately accepts the blame and takes the hit for his colleagues, while
Admiral Pressman is a sleaze, incapable of taking any kind of
responsibility. Picard's final scene with Riker was basically telling
Riker not to beat himself up, where he basically tears into Wesley in his
last two scenes with righteous indignation. For TNG, that was a shocker.

I absolutely agree with jammer. Pegasus is a great episode! Together with
Parallels, Peemptive strike and, of course, All good things ( and perhaps
2-3 three star episodes) made the final season worth to see.

This episode has some weird symmetry for me. I never saw it until shortly
after the BP oil spill disaster and somehow the "deaths of 11" resonated
with the "deaths of 12" and I started crying about halfway through the
episode. So I never was able to really judge it objectively.

And now Jammer posts his review of it right after BP has "agreed" to pay
4.5 billion.

Only in retrospect, in light of BSG. At the time, Ron Moore was "Klingon
Guy," period.

I wonder if Gene Roddenberry would've approved of this story, with its
shady dealings by perfect Starfleet officers. Probably not, even though GR
was around for "Too Short A Season," with its Ollie North-esque admiral,
and allowed that to happen, too.

I agree with Patrick and Paul, very good episode, but a far cry from great.
I give it 3. Maybe 3.5 if I am having a good day.

I have stated this on other review sites regarding this episode, that I
believe the love you get for this episode is simply because it is head and
shoulders above the rest of this dreadful season 7. I suspect that if this
aired in the middle of season 3 this would be considered an average or
slightly above average episode.

There are issues.

1. I didn't care for the romulan commander.
2. the music was a tick above most music this season, but it was still
pretty bad.
3. It was slow.
4. Morally. I never understood why the stupid federation couldn't use
cloaking technology?

And for everyone that hates that this "evil" captain was working on a
cloaking device, I never hear a peep when the Defiant comes out in DS9.
But isn't kind of EXACTLY THE SAME THING? But of course, then our HEROES
are doing it so it is OK.

It's an issue (whether it's moral or not) because the Federation has a
treaty with the Romulans that prohibits Starfleet from using cloaking
technology. Violating treaties with aggressive empires who think humans are
"wastes of skin" is never a good idea.

Meanwhile the Defiant's cloak in DS9 was on loan from the Romulans because
the Romulans wanted to help get information about the Dominion. With the
Romulans' permission, there was no treaty violation.

Now, Sisko did occasionally use the cloak in the Alpha Quadrant -- which he
wasn't supposed to do (Trials and Tribble-ations, For the Cause, Way of the
Warrior). But aside from that, Sisko had permission to cloak the Defiant.

I get there was a treaty, but what did the federation get out of it?
Nothing. People love to make excuses, but at the end of the day there is
only one reason. Roddenberry said early on he thought the cload was
devious, and he didn't want Starfleet being devious. My problem is that
they are devious all the time. Every single series, including the
original, found a way to use cloak here and there. And the fans are very
selective in what they consider wrong. Supposedly fans think the cloak
from this episode is "wrong", thus making Picard right, but wasn't it the
same cloak that saved the life of his 1st officer. Let's be honest, if the
federation LITERALLY never used cloak, DS9 would have been destroyed in the
4th season by the Jem Hadar.

If you think the lying is the problem, than fine, I agree with you, but
there really is no reason Starfleet cannot have a cloak, that is all I
meant by my comment.

Well, presumably, the Federation got peace with the Romulans out of the
bargain. You can definitely argue that the price was too high, but Picard's
moral indignation toward Pressman -- whose illegal actions jeopardized --
resulted from the fact that Pressman violated the treaty.

The use of the cloak in DS9 is a totally different issue -- when it was in
the Gamma Quadrant -- because the Romulans loaned it to the Federation.
There were no ends-justify-the-means arguments because there were no means
to justify.

I don't think Picard thinks cloaks are wrong as a technology -- or, at
least, there's no evidence of that. Heck, he borrowed a cloak from the
Klingons in "Unification".

As for Roddenberry's thoughts on the matter, it's pretty clear that his
vision wasn't the only one that mattered starting in TOS. He wasn't even
around for the third season, he was dead against STV and the Sybok
storyline and, well, he died about halfway through TNG's run.

Loved this episode! Great work by Stewart, Frakes and of course Terry
O'Quinn.

Perhaps it was the darker story popping up in TNG, but I found the story
refreshing. And hey, you can just retcon the Pegasus mission as a Section
31 operation. ;) Loved the misdirecting and lighthearted opening scene.
Genuinely hilarious and then meant to contrast Riker and Picard's
friendship against the later scenes.

The visuals were great. Loved the Enterprise going into the asteroid. The
mystery was well played and kept me riveted. The Enterprise engaging a
cloaking device is a rare "cool" moment on TNG. In the books, the Romulans
have perfected the phase cloak, which is kind of terrifying.

The only thing that felt a little hollow was how Riker was going to face
some "hard questions" and of course he never does and it never comes up
again. Not even in the books.

@Sxottlan: As far as consequences, I always thought that this episode
explained why Riker didn't get another offer for his own ship until Star
Trek X. Considering he got three offers in about four years ...

That said, it still doesn't explain why he didn't get an offer after BOBW
and this episode (a span of three and a half years).

Somewhere on the internet, I'm 100% certain that some Trek fan with mucho
time on their hands have edited TNG's "The Pegasus"
and ENT's "These Are the Voyages..." into a strange mega-episode.
"Yes, see Riker and Troi alternately look younger and older throughout this
mega-sode!"

And the only thing slightly sadder than that, is how much I would kind of
want to see it.

@Paul
Roddenberry was around in the third season of TNG even a little before the
beginning of season 4. It is confirmed by Michael Piller in the special
features of the seasons 3 and 4 boxsets (region 2)

@Paul: Put yourself in Starfleet's shoes for a second. Riker rejected three
offers of his own ship. I guess I would go "well, if he doesn't want it, we
won't force him" and just stop offering him promotions for a while. And
just when that ran out and they might have gone "well, perhaps we might try
again", this episode comes along, triggering "then again, maybe not".

@Ospero: That almost makes sense, except Riker, you know, saved the
Federation in BOBW.

Now, maybe you figure he stays on the Enterprise for a year after that as
they try to replace the ships lost at Wolf 359 (especially when it's hinted
at that 39 ships is a big chunk of the fleet -- even if DS9 changed all
that). But by season 5 of TNG, Starfleet should have been beating on
Riker's door.

Now, maybe, they figured that his actions in BOBW should allow him to do
whatever the hell he wanted.

@Paul
Roddenberry was not in control of the movies after the first one (paramount
removed him) but he was in absolute control of TNG at least as long as he
lived. The fact that paramount gave him this control was the factor that
convinced him to do TNG in the first place. And even after his death and as
long as TNG is concerned Berman systematically refused to do anything that
roddenberry wouldn't do (according to a LeVar Burton interview about 3
years ago).

Ι already said that i like this episode but there is something i want to
add. Pegasus was great because was both a dramatic character driven story
and a science fiction story, i contrast with Lower decks which was a very
good episode but not exactly science fiction.

I thought was some of the Enterprise's manoeuvres vis-a-vis the Romulans
were a bit amateurish and the results were predictable (e.g. tipping off
the Romulans that they were interested in the asteroid in the first place;
entering the asteroid and exposing themselves to the risk of an attack).

Riker's broken rib scene in sickbay was a bit over the top.

Ensign Gates might be more of an android than Data. That extra couldn't
even be bothered to appear in the slightest bit phased about piloting the
ship into the narrow chasm of an asteroid.

The comparison to “The First Duty” is apt; there are also similarities
to Season 4’s “The Wounded” with the Misguided Captain/Admiral angle.
Personally I think “The Wounded” was superior, but I feel I may be the
only one.

@Grumpy: This is probably one of many TNG stories Gene would not have
approved of in its current form. His rationale for the Federation not
having a cloaking device was that they were explorers and didn’t believe
in sneaking around.

My own personal theory (unsupported in canon) for the existence of the
treaty is that early in the 24th century, the Federation was trying to
develop cloaking technology, possibly somewhere near the Neutral Zone. A
horrible accident occurred which resulted in many Romulan deaths, and the
only way to prevent the incident from sparking a war, the Federation agreed
to cease their research into cloaking technology.

In dialogue, it was said that the chief of Starfleet Security and the chief
of Starfleet Intelligence (interestingly, both of whom RDM decided to be
females) were well aware of what Pressman was doing. I don't know why
Picard can be so sure that Pressman will be in the trouble he declares him
to be in....and if he is, then those two admirals should be as well.

Nice episode with huge ramifications.
I agree with the admiral that it was stupid to sign a treaty that said 'We
can cloak but you can't.' Who were the brainiacs behind that?
Nontheless, since the treaty was signed, the federation shouldn't have had
a cloaking device on a ship. They could have still worked to develop the
technology just in case, just don't put it on a starship.

Very good episode. Like some Moore episodes this tended to drag on
military-career-politics and looking backwards. But altogether a great
story that was well produced and directed by LeVar Burton. One issue with
LeVar's that I take...is casting the Romulan commander as black. I don't
think it is realistic to assign human race identities to alien species.

@Smith: "One issue with LeVar's that I take...is casting the Romulan
commander as black. I don't think it is realistic to assign human race
identities to alien species."

That ship had sailed the moment the very first alien that ever appeared on
Trek turned out to fit nicely into human skin tones. I get what you're
trying to say, but your solution would make every single humanoid race in
Trek white, whether we acknowledge that or not.

"The Pegasus" was probably one of the Top 3 episodes of Season 7, plus it
felt like it might've been setting up a major story-arc that might've
occurred across the remaining TNG episodes, and into DS9 and Voyager.
Unfortunately nothing like that occurred, and all we got was the pathetic
and snore-bore "These Are The Voyages" that added nothing and even
conflicted with the events of this episode.

I've always thought I would have liked to see a bit more of the back story
to this episode. The Federation must surely have been in a very weak
position to agree to such an unbalanced treaty: the Romulans having cloaks,
without the Federation having the same, puts the Federation at a HUGE
disadvantage. So what happened? We never really hear about it.

I've also always thought that it was a bit unrealistic how shocked Picard
was at the disclosure. I mean, he might not have approved, but it seems
pretty naïve not to assume that the Federation would be secretly
continuing cloaking research, at least to some extent.

Anyone realize that this is the only episode that John Debney (SeaQuest
DSV) scored? The music for ST:TNG (and the other series) became terrible
after the departure of Ron Jones in the 4th season (despite the writing
getting better), but this one episode is noticeably better than the others
of the season. SeaQuest was on the air at the same time, with notably
better music, its interesting the producers took a shot at Debney (who
would go on to become a big time film composer). The music on ST:TNG is
such a lost opportunity, especially when you put it up against a show like
Lost which was musically coherent from the start.

You are absolutely spot on about the musical score to this episode. There's
a reason this feels so much like a Season 3/4 entry, and it's not just the
incredible acting by Terry O'Quinn. (To me he'll always be John Locke. A
horrible Trek pun, I know.)

The scenes during the asteroid-pass through are marvelously orchestrated,
the sense of menace and forboding palpable. Everything is enhanced by the
music. It's a crime that Debney was never hired again.

Rick Berman was an absolute moron for ordering that the music be so boring
(in the later seasons). If he was looking to make something that was more
"television" than "cinema", he definitely succeeded. I hope that when
Paramount & CBS finally get around to filming another series, they'll
see that the fans want less restrictions in the musical scoring
department.

Oh, and for the record, this is a fantastic episode: great acting, effects,
and plot. When I said this felt like a earlier season entry, I meant it.

My only nitpicks are . . .

#1) Are there any Admirals in Starfleet that don't eventually go rogue?

#2) Why exactly does the Federation not have cloaking technology?

Not to be specie-ist, but if the Klingons understand cloaking technology,
how hard can it be to master? Why would the Federation allow itself to be
hamstrung this way?

People are saying that the Treaty is one-sided, that the Federation gave up
too much, etc. But how do you know? We don't know the full treaty, nor do
we know what caused it to come into place (at least from my understanding).
All we know is that it has limitations on what the Federation can do, but
no information on what limitations are on Romulus.

I read an interesting theory that I like due to its simplicity: the treaty
was signed in response to the Genesis project. After discovering that the
Federation had, in the name of scientific progress, created a weapon of
mass destruction, one can understand why Romulans would be nervous.
Mutually assured destruction worked between the US and the USSR because
both sides had nukes ready to go at all times, and neither side could
ensure that they could prevent a retaliatory attack. But if the Federation
had cloaked Genesis devices hidden throughout the Romulan empire? They
could wipe them out in 5 minutes. Even better, instead of leaving a huge
chunk of the galaxy barren, the destroyed planets would be ripe for
colonization. With relative parity between the Romulan and Federation
fleet, the Federation could prevent the remains of the Romulan fleet from
launching suicide missions on Earth and Vulcan and the like.

How would the Klingons, Cardassians (depending on if the Fed knew of them
yet), Tholians, etc react to the Genesis device? Would they try to build
their own? Or another planet-busting device? Perhaps that is what the
treaty is about. The Federation, as the only group with such a devastating
weapon, would be prohibited from building a cloaking device to prevent it
from being used on Romulus. Likewise, Romulans and Klingons and the like
would be prohibited from creating their own planet destroyers (presumably
there is sufficient technology to stop conventional weapons from destroying
a planet). And thus, the peace is maintained.

Or maybe its something else. Whatever it is, it's hard to judge the treaty
when we know nothing about it.

As for the episode itself, its probably the best of Season 7 outside AGT.
Normally I don't like the sudden event from a character's past that we
never heard about but that is a huge event in their life, since it tends to
be rather contrived. But it makes sense in this case. Of course Riker
would never talk about it and would try to forget about it. And it does
seem to have changed his way of thinking, of being willing to defy orders
if he believes himself to be right. Perhaps even his initial rush to
command was due in part to this sort of thing, so that he doesn't have to
worry as much about being stuck in a similar situation. And maybe that is
partially why he slowed down on the Enterprise, as he recognized that he
wouldn't have to make such a decision with someone like Picard. Maybe
that's why he became comfortable.

But whatever the case, the interplay between Picard, Riker, and Pressman
was a lot of fun to watch. Pressman had enough charisma that you can
imagine a young Riker being completely taken by him. Picard being forced
out of the inner circle was great, and seeing him fume was fun to watch.
And Riker being torn between his loyalty to Picard and being forced to
follow the orders of his admiral, not to mention wrestling with his
conscience. Even if the sickbay scene was too unsubtle, it did show Riker
being angry and feeling helpless, which I imagine is exactly right.

The dressing down Picard gave Riker in his room was absolutely chilling.
It wasn't entirely fair for Picard, but I think he knew what effect it
would have on Riker. That Picard suspected something was up way back when
is natural, that Picard suspected Riker would put the Enterprise in danger
was a bit too much to expect. However, by pretending to suspect that, he
may have pushed Riker into the position of finally coming clean about what
happened. That dressing down had to have been devastating to Riker. I'm
surprised he didn't tell Picard off right there, but he was probably to
shocked to say anything. Either way, it was a great scene.

And seeing Riker go along with everything until the last moment was good to
see as well. Like he said, he had the luxury of time. He probably
suspected he was ending his career one way or the other, and thus was
naturally putting this off as long as possible. Unfortunately for him, the
cloak was still there.

Meanwhile, the Romulan side plot was pretty fun. About the only
disappointment was that it wasn't Tomalak in the warbird. So while the
actor was fairly low-key in his presentation, the lines themselves were
done. It was nice to see the blatant lying (that was such a big part of
The Enemy) resurfacing once again. Even though it wasn't the focus of the
story, the chessgame between Picard and the Romulans was good to see.

My only problem with this episode is the device itself. Every one seems
content to keep calling it a cloak, but it isn't, it's a phasing device
with the added benefit of being unable to be detected. I think this is a
massive distinction. By the logic that it makes you undetectable, one could
argue that the slip stream network the borg uses is a cloaking device, or
if the federation ever found a way to travel through sub space instead of
folding regular space, and since you can not be detected while in it, you
are effectively cloaked and able to go about anywhere undetected.

it comes down to what is and what isn't a cloaking device. And we are never
given a satisfactory answer to that.

Then you have to consider that cloaks are not necessary to to remain
undetected. I know that cloaks look like they bend light around the vessel,
thus creating the illusion of invisibility, I'm going to give the cloak the
benefit of the doubt that it's also redirecting other sensors, as visuals
are not really important in space when looking for visual signs of another
ship tens to hundreds of KM away is impractical at best. But it's not hard
to imagine the federation relying on the concepts of stealth and ECM to
blind and confuse an enemy vessel. I wouldn't call those cloaks. Jam
sensors, painting the ship with a more stealth space camouflage, active and
passive sensor interference techniques, all things that could be done
before the treaty was signed.

Then you have to wonder, what about holo projectors on a ship, disguising
it as something else, while scrambling with sensors to give off false
readings. Would that be considered a cloak?
And why have we only ever seen one type of cloaking of stealth device, when
there are far more ways to accomplish the task.

And why was the federation not allowed cloaks, but the Romulans had no
problems giving cloaking technology to the Klingons, who had far more
conflicts with the Romulans then the federation ever did.

And how are cloaks effective. The best way to detect any vessel is to scan
for a thermal shift in the background. No matter what you do, you can not
stop being hotter then space, and the is not something that is very easily
countered, either, because you have to actively scramble your enemies
devices that can detect thermal energy. Not to mention, looking for
impressions in the gravitational field generated by the masses of these
vessels.

loved the episode, but it did leave me wondering why the federation
couldn't have the phase "cloak" as it's does not work on the same principle
of standard cloaking devices, and has whole new applications. What if the
Phase device didn't fully cloak the vessel, could it be used then?

Of course, Picard revealing the existence of a working phase cloak might
also have massive ramifications in the capabilities of Romulan war ships.
Might explain why my Romulan ships now have phase cloaks in Star Trek
Online.

"The Pegasus" is by far one of the best TNG episodes, top 5 for sure with
me. I re-watched the series withi my daughter last year and even seeing it
20 some-odd years later it's just as powerful. And the scene where the
Enterprise de-phases outside the asteroid is priceless.

Too bad they didn't come back to the phase cloak when the Dominion came
knocking down DS9's door later. I guess it's probably a good idea because
this tech is just too powerful.